Puerto Rico's Leader Plans To Call It Quits

June 2, 1999|By IVN ROMN San Juan Bureau

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — In a surprise announcement that left his cabinet, his party and his followers in shock, Gov. Pedro Rossello said on Tuesday he will not seek a third term, sending the New Progressive Party into disarray as it heads into the elections in the year 2000.

In a 15-minute televised message that capped a day of rumor and speculation, Rosello said he was fulfilling a promise he made publicly and privately when he first took office in January 1993 -- that he would stay no longer than eight years.

"I've done my duty with the people; ... now it's time to fulfill my commitment to my family," Rossello said, seated in his office next to pictures of his wife and other family members. "For me it's a matter of my word and of principle, of commitment and conviction. My friends will understand."

He highlighted his accomplishments during his sometimes tumultuous and confrontational tenure to say the time had come to put partisan politics aside, for all to work together to finish the many projects his administration has started, among them the San Juan subway, a series of public works and better access to health care. Rossello has recently fended off accusations about alleged mishandling of bidding and contract procedures and criticism of the privatization of the Puerto Rico Telephone Company, some agencies and 34 hospitals. Most recently, he has had to take the witness stand in the San Juan AIDS Institute fraud and money-laundering trial to deny a claim that he asked for $250,000 in federal funds supposedly steered towards his first gubernatorial campaign in 1992.

After refusing to say for months whether he would run again, Rosello made the announcement on the first day the NPP had to file candidacies. Many of the party faithful at the governor's mansion and in government offices, and callers to radio talk-in shows, said they were shocked by the news.

"It surprises me because the leadership was never told," said Bernardo Negron Montalvo, the mayor of Villalba for the past 20 years, who is influential in the NPP, which seeks statehood for Puerto Rico. "All indications were that he was our candidate."

Some said this announcement, coming 18 months before the elections, was "devastating" for the NPP, which now must find a gubernatorial candidate and start a reorganization process. With no clear, strong mayoral candidates for many of the major cities including San Juan, some activists within the party complained privately over the weekend that the NPP seemed like a party with no one at the helm.

This all comes at a time when the opposition Popular Democratic Party seems to be riding high. According to a poll published last week in El Nuevo Dia, the island's largest newspaper, the PDP candidate, San Juan Mayor Sila Calderon, would beat out Rossello by 17 percentage points, 47 percent to 30 percent, if the election were held then. That same poll says 70 percent of the voters believe that public corruption is worse now than in the past, even among those polled who belong to the NPP.

Tuesday PDP leaders were harsh in their assessment of Rossello's announcement.

"His decision is an admission of defeat, an admission that the boat is sinking," said Rep. Anibal Acevedo Vila, the PDP vice president. "I would not trust a captain who abandons ship when it begins to take on water."

Just a few weeks ago, Secretary of State Norma Burgos said about a Rossello candidacy: "There is no other option." On Tuesday she had to stand in front of the television cameras after the televised message to tell the party faithful that it was time to move on. She urged party leaders, who were already talking of a massive show of support to get Rossello to reconsider, not to fan the flames and to respect his decision.

"I ask that the party's rank and file understand his decision, that they support a man who has made history in Puerto Rico and that they give him the thanks that we owe him."

Party leaders assured the mayors and NPP rank and file that Rosello's decision would not hamper the party's chances of winning in the year 2000. "There is enough time to take whatever measures we need to take and to select candidates," said Carlos Romero Barcelo, the island's current representative to Congress and a former governor. "There should be a way for us to agree on a candidate, but if we can't, we can go to a primary. Sometimes primaries are healthy."

The list of possible candidates includes Romero Barcelo; Carlos Pesquera, secretary of Transportation and Public Works; Police and Security Commissioner Pedro Toledo; and Senate President Charlie Rodriguez.